Lemon Cheesecake Ice Cream Recipe
We’re eating tart and creamy lemon cheesecake ice cream made with fresh, local lemons, cream cheese and a swirl of crumbled graham cracker.
Until about a week or two ago there was no possible way for us to make and feature ice creams or sorbets on WWE due to our lack of equipment. Then our wonderful friend Nicole swooped in and saved the day. While browsing through a thrift store, she found the exact model of ice cream maker she uses, but for about 1/6 of the cost. Lucky for me, she didn’t let this amazing find pass her by. Nope, she snatched that thing on up and gave it to little ole me! (Maybe because I’ve been threatening to make gin sorbet using her machine for the past six months & she’s hoping to avoid the hangover from gorging on it!)
In another showing of Nicole’s awesomeness, she took me over to her sister’s house, who happens to have a huge lemon tree, and we were given an insane number of lemons, fresh from the tree! AND we didn’t even have to pick them ourselves. Nicole’s sister, Penny, had already done all the work. Thanks, Penny! You rock! Hell, your whole family rocks! 🙂
Equipped with my new ice cream maker and a butt-ton of fresh lemons, there was only 1 conclusion for me to reach: lemon ice cream! I knew that I also wanted it to be a cream cheese based ice cream as they tend to be my favorite and you don’t find them too frequently out here. (In Louisiana, that was a different story.) With this in mind I set out on a google search to show me ingredient ratios to make the perfect ice cream. Recipe after recipe that I looked at was filled with a huge number of eggs and cups of heavy cream! UGH! I was already going to be adding 8oz of cream cheese to my recipe so I really didn’t want all the excess cholesterol and fat included in all the recipes I was finding.
Fortunately I then remembered the King of Ice Cream, The Perfect Scoop Author, the fabulous David Lebovitz. After perusing his site for a while I came across this recipe for pistachio gelato where he uses milk and corn starch to form a pastry cream as the base of his gelato rather than a custard of eggs and heavy cream. Perfect!
It was exactly what I was looking for. With this technique in hand, I set out to make what turned out to be a deliciously refreshing, creamy, tart lemon ice cream… thanks to Nicole, Penny and David!
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
zest from 1 lemon
2 tbsp cornstarch
pinch of salt
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/5 cups crumbled honey graham crackers, (large crumbles are good!)
In a small bowl, make a slurry using the corn starch and about 2-3 tbsp of the milk. Stir until corn starch has completely dissolved. Set aside.
Place the remainder of the milk, the sugar, the lemon zest and a pinch of salt into a saucepan and stir to combine. Place the sauce pan over medium-high heat. Allow the mixture to almost reach a boil, stirring frequently. Once the mixture has almost reached a boil, whisk in the corn starch slurry then reduce heat to a low simmer. Let the milk mixture simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for at least 15 minutes at room temperature.
While the mixture is cooling, beat the cream cheese in a mixing bowl either using an electric mixer or by hand with a spatula until the cream cheese is creamy and easy to work with. Adding about 2-3 tbsp at a time, beat the lemon juice into the cream cheese until smooth. Once the 2-3 tbsp have been incorporated, repeat this process until all of the lemon juice has been fully mixed in.
Add the slightly cooled milk/cornstarch mixture to the lemon/cream cheese mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 3 days until ready to churn.
Freeze the ice cream in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. Once frozen, remove from ice cream machine and add the crumbled graham crackers. Using a wooden spoon or a spatula, stir until the graham crackers have been distributed throughout the ice cream. Serve the ice cream immediately or place into an air-tight container and place in the freezer. The ice cream is best consumed within 24 hours. (The longer it sits in the freezer the icier, and less desirable, it will get!) Enjoy!
This was goooooooood! Loved the graham cracker chunks, the tartness and cream cheeziness. Yum! My mouth is puckering right now just thinking about it! I still have at least half a ton of lemons in my fridge so we need to come up with about 20 more ways to use lemons in the next month or so. 🙂
Lovely recipe and blog!
Tarty to the point of eating it in front of a trumpet player! Love it!
Gabi @ Mamaliga.
i know, nicole! what on earth are we gonna do with all these delicious lemons! 🙂
heheheheh, thanks so much, Gabi!
Wow, that ice cream looks insanely delicious…
Oh, one suggestion to use some lemons in another tart, cold way? Smitten’s Lemon Mint Granita. http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/06/lemon-mint-granita/ Looks reaaaally yummy.
“Amanda cooks. Tyler is lucky” You bet he’s lucky. This ice cream sounds delicious. I bet the crunch from the graham crackers brings a nice texture to the dessert. And lemon cheesecake? You go girl!
What an absolutely wonderful looking recipe. I always am on the lookout for great ice cream recipes and lemony desserts are perfect for summer. Thanks!
jen
http://www.bodaweightloss.com/blog
I’ve been experimenting with ice cream a lot lately, myself–I, too, just got a machine. But I wish that had not stopped you! It is doable without an ice cream maker.
Looking forward to lots of yummy ice cream flavor ideas!
Hot damn, this looks good! I just wish my dumb ass didn’t break the churner on my ice cream machine. I’ve never heard of ice cream being made with a slurry, and I freaking love cheesecake, so as soon as my broke ass can buy a new one, I will be making this recipe. And it shall be AMAZING. Thanks!
Back when I was an employee at Williams Sonoma I acquired an ice cream machine for a great price. Now I’m always on the look-out for great recipes to make in it. This looks delicious. My daughter loves to mix in graham crackers to her ice cream so I know she’ll love this. Thanks!
That was AMAZING! I found this site as I just posted a lemon cheesecake recipe on my site and this came up through the blog roll. I’d never thought of cheesecake ice cream but, although not great for the waistline, tasted fantastic!
I’d give it more than 4.75!!!!
Dang, that is just a tease. I’m in the office right now and maaaaaaaaaan, that looks so good.
Smitten once again with the fabulous dessert! Haven’t been here in a long time but once i do, i get addicted.
Amanda its been a long time since i came here! I’m thinking of getting out of uni and getting into culinary school. What do you think? (:
That would be a nice dessert to do for a summer party, instead of doing the typical cake/pie/brownies.
-Jack
OH MY! This is amazing!!! I can’t keep my husband out of it. I love this recipe. I think I will make it often. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I wish I was eating this, looks awesome!
Love it. thanks for sharing!
I found a recipe for a protein shake using lemon cheesecake ice cream but couldn’t find it in the stores , this recipe will definately come in handy , thanks for sharing :).
Just wanted to thank you soooo much for this wonderful recipe. Very flavorful: lemony, cheesy, and creamy! It freezes beautifully too; it didn’t get icy!
The only thing I regret is that I didn’t double the recipe 😀 Next time definitely.
I just loved this recipe! Thanks for sharing.
I was just wondering: can I use this same recipe as a base for other cheesecake ice creams, by replacing the lemon juice with strawberry or blueberry puree?
Thanks so much!
I’m eating this right now. It’s really rich! (especially considering there’s no cream and no egg yolks) Thanks for the great recipe! Next time I’ll use reduced fat cream cheese. Just so I can eat a tiny bit more 🙂